Taiwanese Salt and Pepper Chicken-Yan Su Ji

Taiwanese salt and pepper chicken (basil peppercorn chicken or yan su ji) is one of my husband’s favorite during sports event just like Olympic Game this year. He is the happiest man in the world when served with fried chicken and chilled beer.

Personally I don’t like to make deep-fried dishes at home because usually a large mount of oil is needed. With the hope of saving some oil, I use a smaller pot and fry the chicken by 4 batches (I hope to be a saving cook).

About the ingredients for this salt and pepper peppercorn chicken

I use chicken thigh instead of chicken breast. Chinese really do not like chicken breast even in the famous Kung Pao Chicken. Boneless chicken thigh is our favorite. Remove the skins and the bones and cut chicken into bite sizes.

The flour for coating is sweet potato flour, which is an extremely popular flour used in many Chinese cuisines including Szechuan cuisine. We made a large bag using the sweet potatoes growing in our own field each year. Most of the sweet potato flour is coarse-textured, which will give the characteristic crumbly texture on the surface. You can try to search it in Asian grocers, otherwise use cornstarch or all-purpose flour to replace it. But you may end up with slightly different looking.

You will need

2 boneless chicken thigh (around 320g)

2/3 cup sweet potato starch (or you can use other starch to replace it )

Mix all the marinating ingredients with chicken meat. Combine well and set aside in fridge for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Add half of the flour in the marinating bowl and mix well.

Heat up oil to 170 degree C. Place the remaining flour in the plate and coat each chicken pieces with a thin layer of flour.Slow the heat to medium heat and fry the chicken pieces for 2 to 3 minutes until golden brown.Transfer out and cool down slightly (around 2 to 3 minutes).

Reheat the oil around 150 degree C and then add basil leaves in. And then continue heating the oil until really hot, return the fried chicken pieces to fry for around half minute.

Mix seasonings

Mix the ingredients together and toast in a dry frypan over low–medium heat until fragrant.

Hi Elaine
I was wondering what I can use to make it spicy. These reminds me of the popcorn chicken that sells in those boba tea house places and I usually add the spicy spice to it and not sure what it is. Can’t wait to try this recipe been looking for one for quite some time already. Thanks!

Hi Elaine, I just found your blog, would like to give this a try. You mentioned 1 Tbsp white pepper in the mixed seasonings powder twice, is it another seasoning powder that you would mention there aside from the white pepper? Or is it just a repetition by mistake?
Thank you

Just found this recipe and will try it out soon, since I love salt and pepper chicken from food stalls. They typically serve it with a orange colored, sweet mayo-ish sauce, and I was wondering if that’s just something that particular stall makes or if it was a universal thing, and if you knew what is was/how to make it. Thanks!

Brian,
That ornage coloured mayo sauce may be Sriracha mayo. Combination of sriracha chili sauce and regular or Asian mayonnaise. It shoudl be avaialbel from Asian grocery stores. A popular brand is Lee Kum Kee (LKK of Hong Kong), which has a factory in Southern California.
Hope this helps. Good Luck!

Hi Elaine,
You mention you make your own sweet potato flour from the sweet potatoes you grow. Can you tell me please how you make the flour? Do you slice up the potatoes and dehydrate them, then grate into a flour? Thank you.

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